Baylor Scheierman scored 23 points, Trey Alexander had 15 of his 20 in the first half, and eighth-ranked Creighton blew out Texas Southern 82-50 Saturday night.
It took a while for the Bluejays to warm up against their opponent from the Southwestern Athletic Conference. When they did, it was game over.
Ryan Kalkbrenner had 16 points, 10 rebounds and four blocks for Creighton, and Alexander had eight assists and seven rebounds.
Texas Southern (0-4), playing the fourth of nine straight road or neutral-site games to open the season, got 14 points from Zytarious Mortle. The Tigers were without SWAC preseason player or the year and leading scorer PJ Henry for an undisclosed reason.
“We got a lot of good looks at the basket that we missed,” Creighton coach Greg McDermott said. “We’ll take those shots. I liked we were finally able to execute and create some separation once they got it to 63-44. We stopped them on nine or 10 possessions in a row. Never going to be perfect. Tonight we weren’t, but it wasn’t from a lack of effort.”
Scheierman made 3 of 10 3s and was effective around the basket.
“I don’t think I shot it very well from 3,” he said, “so to get to the rim and foul line and see it go through is good for the confidence. Teammates got me the ball and gave me the confidence to let it fly.”
After Shaqir O’Neal’s 3 pulled the Tigers within 10 midway through the first half, Alexander’s dunk, Francisco Farabello’s layup and Isaac Traudt’s putback built back the cushion. Then Alexander’s four-point play and back-to-back 3s all but finished off the Tigers.
Mortle scored nine points in a 13-7 spurt that cut Creighton’s lead to 17 points in the second half. Kalkbrenner then dunked Steven Ashworth’s lob to start a 20-0 spurt, and the Tigers went almost seven minutes without scoring.
“We went through a stretch in the second half we were sloppy and had some careless turnovers,” Scheierman said. “To regain focus and regroup really helped and we finished the game really strong.”
BIG PICTURE
Texas Southern: The Tigers, picked to win the Southwestern Athletic Conference, played their second game in seven-game stretch in which six of the opponents were in the NCAA Tournament last season.
Creighton: The Bluejays improved to 29-0 all-time against opponents from the SWAC. They beat Florida A&M 105-54 on Nov. 7.
